Unfold
by bravevulnerability
Summary: "You should know by now that you and beds are a very distracting combo." Castle and Beckett go shopping for new bedding. Pre-ep for 7x18, At Close Range.


**A/N: Set anytime before 7x18, At Close Range.**

* * *

Walking through the store with Kate Beckett pushing a shopping cart while he trails along at her side fills him with a comfort he's always taken great pleasure in recognizing. Of course, they've gone grocery shopping together plenty of times, strolled through boutiques and outlet malls hand in hand like any other couple might, and over the years, the newness of it has finally worn off, his heart no longer swollen with the overwhelming recognition of domesticity, of the new normalcy every single time. But he hasn't lost that feeling of how _right _it is to meander through department stores and other public establishments with her, not having to follow like when they're at work, but walking alongside her instead. Equals.

"You know," he muses, toying with one of the packaged bedspreads on display. They've been wandering through the bedroom furniture store on 5th Avenue for an hour and they've both found a handful of items they came for and can agree on, but continue to butt heads on the bedding. "A Star Wars bedspread would compliment the bedroom so well. And it'd fit in nicely with Boba Fett."

"Boba Fett is in storage," Beckett reminds him, but the smirk still flirts with the corner of her mouth as she eyes a royal purple set of sheets and oh, she would look lovely splayed across those… "And besides, you're the one who ruined our current bedding in the first place, I get to veto."

Castle groans. "It was your fault I spilled your breakfast all over the bed in the first place. You and your-"

"_Castle_," she hisses, swatting his bicep with the back of her hand. "We are not talking about that here. If anyone asks, you just spilled the coffee everywhere because you're clumsy."

"Only when you do that thing-" He purses his lips at the glare he receives, but it really _is _her fault. He was only trying to be a good husband, bring her breakfast and a steaming cup of coffee and allow her to enjoy it from the comfort of their bed on her day off. Not his fault that being good caused that spark of lazy arousal to ignite in her eyes. And she had no right to complain either, since even after the coffee had slipped from his hands, spilled and stained the sheets, she had paused, but she hadn't stopped.

"Besides," she murmurs, pushing the cart along to the next aisle that held an abundance of sheets with multiple thread counts. "I've been wanting to come shopping for something new for a while now."

Rick drops his pretense of pouting and turns to watch her as her eyes roam the Egyptian cotton, always gravitating towards the darker colors – night blues, deep purples, striking crimsons. The sheets at her old place had been a royal blue, almost navy, a nice contrast to the ivory of her bedspread. His sheets have always been simple, white or black, never too much thought put into the decision. But the sheets, the pillows, the comforter decorating their bed have always been his. She may have moved into his loft, brought in a few of her favorite paintings from her apartment to liven up the walls and a handful of knickknacks to add to his shelves, but his presence still dominates their bedroom.

"You should have told me sooner," Castle mumbles, drifting in a little too close with his chest nudging up against her shoulder, her ballet flats placing a few inches of lost height between them that he always relishes in. "If you didn't like the bedding, I could have-"

"It's not that," Kate chuckles, sparing a glance away from the sheet selection to let him see the curve of her lips, the light in her eyes. "I've always liked the look of your place, your room."

Her eyes flash with a familiar flicker of heat at the mention of the bedroom, that same, slow burning flame that caused the morning disaster their bedding endured only two hours ago.

"But it's your room too, Kate," he insists, noticing the flame simmer into something softer, gentler. "I want you to be comfortable there. I know we've redecorated the walls a little, the bathroom, but-"

"Castle," she shushes, detaching a hand from the shopping basket to extend her arm, curl her fingers into a belt loop at the back of his jeans and reel him in. "I am comfortable. You'd know if I wasn't."

She lifts on the toes of her flats to snag a kiss from his lips, soft and sweet with a sweep of her tongue that calls for his attention, but the hand to his sternum keeps him from chasing as she drops back to her feet.

"Fine, no Star Wars," he concedes, nudging the sharp bone of her cheek with his nose, whispering his lips along her hairline.

Kate laughs, the uninhibited, melodious sound he usually doesn't hear too often while they're in public, and uncoils the fingers at his belt to rub her knuckles along the tail of his spine.

"Can I help you folks with anything?"

Beckett releases him, taking a small step back to place a somewhat appropriate amount distance between the two of them. The employee standing only a few feet away doesn't look put off by the unintentional show of affection, though, the false smile on his face wide and unwavering, but he isn't smiling at both of them. No, the tall, muscular man approaching them reminds Rick too much of his wife's former beaus, a strange mixture between Doctor Motorcycle Boy and Sorenson who is focused solely on Kate.

Castle pretends to ignore the sales attendant doing little to hide his interest in Beckett, feigning intrigue at a display of nearby pillows, but he does splay a hand at his wife's waist, his palm claiming the jut of her hipbone through her jeans, and to his delight, Kate indulges the territorial touch, twining her fingers with his.

"We just got these mulberry silk sheets in," the salesman informs her, his dark eyebrows arching with appeal. "They're imported from this impeccable place in the UK and in this gorgeous champagne color that I'm sure would look great with your-"

"No, thank you," Kate assures Todd, according to his gleaming, silver nameplate. "We're doing just fine on our own."

"If you say so," Todd replies, throwing Kate a wink that has irritation warming Castle's blood even as the man turns and strides away, off to seduce another customer.

"Champagne colored sheets," Castle scoffs, pressing his elbows to the handlebar of the basket, the force of his weight wheeling the cart forward.

"I don't know," Beckett hums at his side, her hand still tangled in his. "I think you'd look pretty good under champagne colored sheets with me."

His lips crack despite the grumbling protest still rattling in his chest and he squeezes her fingers when she nudges his shoulder with her own.

"Seriously, Beckett. We need to pick our bedding and go. Otherwise, I'm dragging you to the Ikea down the street where the sales clerks don't hit on married women."

She chuckles, releasing his hand to loop her arm in his instead, allowing him to push the shopping cart along with ease, exiting the aisle of sheets and heading back towards the full bedding displays.

"May I remind you that you're the one who demanded to come here?"

"The future homewrecker was not working the last time I shopped here," Castle defends even as she rolls her eyes in response, pausing in their halfhearted stroll to admire the row of mattresses decorated in top of the line bedding. "What about any of these?"

Beckett hums, a noise of contemplation he recognizes, and scans the array of bedding with narrowed eyes, examining bedspreads like suspects in a lineup.

"I want something colorful," she mumbles, her gaze drawn to the beginning of the row of beds. They were arranged in the spectrum of a rainbow, spanning from shades of reds to the darkest of blues, and eventually blacks. "Nothing gaudy, but a warm color."

Castle nods, mentally disregarding the latter selection of the color wheel. "I kind of like this one," he admits, pointing to a rose colored bedspread with deep pink accents near the front of the line. The pillows adorning the head of the bed are decorated with the same coloring, a splash of the cherry wine hue in the flowers that consume the corners, the rest of the fabric a subtle peach. The entire set makes him think of Bali for some reason, brings exotic places to mind that he could take her to, all the beauty left waiting in the world for him to explore and share with her. "Reminds me of those pink streaks that are sometimes in the sunset."

"Yeah," she grins, the flecks of gold in her eyes spilling over, mixing with the rich greens and brown to create a shimmering oasis in her irises, the same excitement they find when solving a case together alive in her gaze. "And the flower pattern on the pillows," she adds, abandoning him and the shopping cart to take a closer look, reaching forward to brush her fingers over the design, tracing the smaller, intricate blossoms sewn in. "It's beautiful."

He knows for certain it's the set he wants when she takes a seat on the side of the mattress, splays her hands over the comforter and hums in approval.

"Mm, Castle, feel the fabric too."

Rick dips forward, slides his hand along the foot of the bed, appreciating the supple material of the comforter against his palm. The fabric is different from their current piece, feather soft and breathable, and she looks absolutely gorgeous against the color.

"It's settled then," Castle grins, reaching for the large plastic bundle beside the display, snagging the matching set of sheets, and placing the items in their cart.

"You sure?" she asks, rising from the bed and returning to him and their chosen purchases. "Because if you want to look around some more-"

"Kate, this is the first one we've both liked upon seeing," he reasons. "It'll look great in our room, so unless you aren't sure, I don't need to browse anymore."

"It does already match the color scheme," she agrees on a nod, staring at the bedding in their basket, as if already picturing it adorning their mattress at home, while he begins pushing towards the front of the store, relieved to see Todd the salesman attempting to sell some ruffled bedspreads to an elderly woman at the other end of the building.

At the checkout, Kate coils her fingers at his elbow, circling her thumb around the jut of bone and leaning into his side. Outside on the sidewalk, she reclaims the hand that isn't carrying half of their bags, throwing him sweet smiles that rival the brilliance of the sun throughout the walk home. They merely bought new bedding, new sheets, nothing groundbreaking, but it means something to her, solidifies something for him too.

It's only bedding today, but he envisions so much more in their future. He daydreams about a new home, one he's never shared with anyone else, pictures the family they've discussed in secret smiles and knowing gazes, sees their story unfolding in ways he never would have dared to hope for.

His life before her was good, satisfactory, but she makes him want more and now Kate Beckett has him imagining a future he never would have dreamed of.

* * *

They make the bed together, working in tandem to lift the mattress an arrange the bed skirt atop the box springs, tackling opposite ends of the fitted sheet. He really likes the way Kate's skin blends with the rich pink of the sheets, can't help imagining how her golden flesh will appear stretched across the warm shade of color and yearns to witness how the gossamer locks of her hair will look splayed across it, against the new pillows that he attempts to arrange neatly up against the headboard.

"Can we at least finish setting it up first?" she questions from the other side of the mattress and Castle quickly notices her watching him, her brow quirked, the bedspread bundled in her arms.

"F-first?" he echoes, smoothing a nonexistent wrinkle from one of the crisp corners of the sheets.

Kate drops the comforter on the edge of the bed and then she's climbing onto the mattress, crawling across the newly laid sheets on all fours, a predatory gleam in her eyes that completely contradicts her words.

There is no way they're going to get _anything _done if she's going to eat him alive with her gaze like that.

"You have been staring at me ever since we started making the bed," she points out, rising on her knees once she reaches him, draping her arms over his shoulders and slipping her fingers beneath the collar of his shirt. "Just like you were at the store."

Castle glides his hands beneath the hem of her t-shirt, teasing the waistband of her jeans before he splays his hands wide at the silken planes of her back, traveling up her sides until he can feel the branches of her ribs expanding, filling his palms with heated flesh and rigid bone.

"You should know by now that you and beds are a very distracting combo." His thumbs skim beneath the cups of her bra, caress the undersides of her breasts, taking note of the darkening shift in her eyes, the black coals of her pupils and the embers of her irises. "So Beckett, think it's finally time we test out the bedding?"

She doesn't answer, already lurching for him, capturing his mouth even as she tugs him down to the mattress with her in wordless agreement. He frees her of her clothes with practiced ease, sending the t-shirt flying across the room, her jeans towards the closet, and oh, he was _so_ right.

The new sheets compliment her naked body well.


End file.
